EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY W. F. CLAKKE, CHICAGO, ILL. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANISTDM, PATABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. IX. 



]VOVEM:BEIt, IST'3. 



No. 5 



[Translated from the Bienenzeitung.] 



The Exhibition at Simmening. 



On the 1st of August our International Exhi- 

 bition of stocks of live bees was opened at 

 Simmening in the suburbs of Vienna, where we 

 had been granted the use of the new school 

 house and school garden. We all met in the 

 public gardens of Herr Kleinle, and forming 

 into a procession, the firemen with music lead- 

 ing off, then the Turners with flags, and last the 

 guests, we marched to the Exhibition grounds. 

 The arrangements were made under the direc- 

 tion of the Counselor of the Agricultural Bu- 

 reau, Herr von Marenzeller, who was also pres- 

 ent in the procession. In the great hall of the 

 school the assembly was heartily welcomed by 

 Dr. Seidler, as head of the school council of 

 that district. ^Wliereupon the Vice President 

 of the Association, Dr. Vincent Heller, made 

 the following reply : 



Honored Assembly : Since the honor of 

 opening this, the first International Beekeep- 

 ers' Exhibition has fallen upon me, suffer me 

 to make a few introductory remarks. Already 

 in ancient times, so far back as history or tra- 

 dition reaches, has that little and comparative- 

 ly insignificant insect, the Honey Bee, attracted 

 the attention of man. At first that man sought 

 for the honey and wax of the wild swarms of 

 bees in the hollow trunks of trees and clefts ot 

 the rocks, and used these rich products on the 

 one hand for the benefit of mankind, and on 

 the other as an offering to the gods. Soon, 

 however, these wild swarms of bees were cher- 

 ished near the house and kept in the hollow 

 limbs of trees, until gradually not only indi- 

 vidual swarms lost their wildness, but the 

 whole race threw off their state of wildness and 

 became one of the most loved of domestic ani- 

 mals. As all wild animals become more and more 

 accustomed so the presence of man, so the bee 

 gave up the greatest portion of her wildness, 

 and to-day uses in a very modified way her un- 

 pleasant sting. 



In the lapse of time honey and wax became 

 almost indispensable to mankind, and thus the 



beekeepers became a separate, much-honored 

 guild. This was the blooming of bee culture 

 in the middle ages, where the German Zeidler- 

 gesellschaft, especially, in Nuremberg, had a 

 very high reputation. 



As human industries are always advancing 

 toward perfection, asthe natural philosopher and 

 the gold-seeking alchemist, although finding no 

 gold in their retorts, yet accomplished a great 

 good in developing the science of chemistry, 

 so for the pure products of nature, wax and 

 honey, many sul^stitutes have been invented, 

 which although being inferior as to quality, 

 have the advantage of being cheaper in price. 

 For the wax candle has been substituted first 

 the tallow, then the stearin candle ; for honey 

 we have the juice of plants and the finest su- 

 gar of our own times. 



What was more natural than that these all 

 caused a hindrance to bee culture, which work- 

 ed itself more and more to the front, until 

 everywhere bee culture was slighted, except by 

 a few persons — priests in the temple of nature 

 and agriculture, among them many priests of 

 God of all confessions of faith. Much as 

 chemistry and through it the practical arts 

 have been able to accomplish in all parts of the 

 world, they have not been able to show a drop 

 of honey or a particle of wax that will at all 

 compare with that produced by the bee. Wan- 

 der through the world's exposition, the largest 

 the world has yet seen, and you will be con- 

 vinced of the truth of my words. 



Honey and wax happily still command a fair 

 price, which yields to beekeeping a fair profit, 

 and places it in a high rank of national econ- 

 omic value, as every one living in the country, 

 or near the same, or in towns rich in gardens, 

 can cultivate the same. 



In the middle of the present century bee- 

 keeping began to raise its head more and more, 

 and it was granted to those priests in the tem- 

 ple of nature and science, especially Pastor 

 Dzierzon, of Carlmarkt, in Prussian Silesia, Prof. 

 Dr. von Siebold, of Munich, and Baron von Ber- 

 lepsch, continually to furnish us with more ad- 

 vanced discoveries upon which it was possible 

 to base a rational system of bee culture, from 



